


there's a little black hole in my golden cup

by dragonsinparis



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-01 16:54:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10194377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonsinparis/pseuds/dragonsinparis
Summary: When Chloé asks why Ladybug never smiles for their selfies, Ladybug replies that her magic tells her that Chloé is never nice to her classmates. Chloé sets out to rectify this problem for the sake of her hero and her instagram, and enlists Adrien to help teach her this kindness nonsense.It’d go a lot smoother if Adrien wasn’t suddenly being super weird about Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and if Marinette Dupain-Cheng wasn’t suddenly being extra weird in general.(based onthis artworkby hchano)





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hchano](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hchano/gifts).



“Teach me to be ‘nice,’” Chloé says.

“Um,” Adrien says. “What?”

Ugh. She picked Adrien rather than Sabrina in part, admittedly, because Sabrina has no other friends besides her so Chloé isn't sure how good the redhead would be at this...but also because Adrien is supposed to be _smart_. That's kind of the problem with Adrien: he’s, like, super good at school and totally gorgeous and he knows what goes with yellow and what the best hair gel is and how many calories are in a cucumber, how could he not since he's a model, but sometimes that boy is dumb as a rock.

“I need to learn to be ‘nice,’ so I need you to teach me.”

“Why?”

Ugh, another stupid question! Like it's any of his business! “It doesn't matter _why!_ ”

“Well it kind of seems like you don't really want to do it, and if you don't really want to do it, you won't be very good at it.”

If that's true, it explains a lot. Not that she's ready to back down. “What makes you think I don't want to do it? I asked you to help, didn't I?”

“Well, you kind of demanded. But I think the fact that you do air quotes every time you say the word ‘nice’ was my first clue.”

Don't use air quotes. She can totally do this ‘nice’ thing.

“I can totally stop using air quotes. I can be nice. Teach me to be nice!”

“Say please.”

“Oh my god, Adrikins, I love you, but don’t be a such a lame asshole.”

Adrien is doing that thing where one of his eyebrows is lowered enough that it might fall off his face, which would definitely decrease his hotness. They are both blondes with great eyebrows. No wonder they get along so well. Usually.

“Saying ‘please’ is part of learning to be nice, Chloé.”

Gross. This is going to be harder than she thought. “Okay, fine. PLEASE, you have to help me learn to be nice.”

“It’s ‘please help me learn to be nice,’ and don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a good goal, but, um...you still didn’t clarify the whole why thing, and you don’t seem to want to, so I’m a little confused?”

 _Perpetually_ , Chloé thinks, but she doesn’t say it. Is nice just not saying stuff like that even when people give you the perfect opening?

“You can’t tell anyone,” she says.

“O...kay?”

“Promise!”

“I promise! Jeez.”

“Okay.” She takes a deep breath. “Ladybug says I’m mean.”

Adrien looks like he’s been hit in the face with an ice cream cone and he doesn’t exactly know how to react because it’s more confusing than anything. “What?”

“I know! It's crazy, but…” she bites her lip. “I asked her why she never smiles for my selfies because I know she smiles for other people’s. She says Miraculous holders have special powers that let them see things we’ve done. Like freaking Santa Claus.”

“That's totally not true,” Adrien says. She can tell he's on the verge of laughing, which pisses her off - as if she wouldn't have even questioned something like that.

“You don’t know what Ladybug can do!” She says.

“And you do?” He is still being polite about it, he’s Adrien, but she can tell he finds this whole situation hilarious. On any other day, for any other reason, that would be enough to send her storming off in a huff. But he’s the only person who can help her who actually would, and it’s _Ladybug._

“I didn’t believe her at first either,” Chloé says. It’s no small admission: normally her hero’s word is gospel. “But she knew things! Things she couldn’t have known! Remember yesterday when Marinette brought in those pastries with the powdered sugar and Juleka dropped hers and got covered in the stuff and I told her she needed to stop trying so hard because even when she’s not dressing as a vampire or a ghost she looks dead? Ladybug told me that was mean, but she also knew every detail. It was like she was there. She even knew stuff I asked her, so it isn’t like someone could have told her certain things.”

Adrien clearly no longer thinks this is funny, if his face is anything to go by. Good. She doesn’t want to have to put up with one of the few people she actually likes doubting Ladybug.

“Maybe she’s in our class,” Adrien says, voice soft and full of wonder.

That isn’t something she’d thought about, but it doesn’t slow her down for long.

“No way,” she tells him. “Even if literally anyone in our class was anywhere near cool enough to be Ladybug - which they definitely are not - all of them have been akumatized at one point or another. If they _fought_ Ladybug, they can’t _be_ Ladybug. The only exceptions are you and Marinette Dupain-Cheng. You can pull off almost anything, but you’d look awful in pigtails. And Marinette is objectively the worst.”

Adrien is staring at her, frozen, shock all over his face.

“I’m not judging you, Adrikins,” she says, sighing. Boys and their _feelings_ are so...exhausting. “I just think you look better with the hair you have now. If you must grow it out, I’d say low ponytail. Do not go high, that’s mine, and it will only draw attention to how much better I look in it.”

“Chloé,” Adrien says, still in that breathy voice, “you’re a _genius_.”

“I know,” she says. “I think you could maybe do a man-bun, too, but you don’t tend to lean controversial and whether those are in or not is pretty up in the air. Plus your dad would _flip._ ”

“No, I meant - nevermind.” Adrien shakes his head, as if he’s trying to clear it. He doesn’t look like he’s succeeding, but he also seems like he’s game to cooperate, which is what she actually cares about so whatever.

“So you’ll help me?”

“Yeah,” he says. “Yeah.” It’s that voice where he’s not really paying attention. She could get him to agree to play parcheesi with a moose if she asked.

But this is what she wants, all she has ever wanted: for Ladybug to care, to notice, to find her worthy. If that means letting him turn her into someone else, well - Hawkmoth already did that.

At least this time she’ll have chosen it. At least this time it will put her side by side with Ladybug, not pitted against her. She can bear it. She can learn. She’s the best already but she can be better than the best, whatever that means.

 

~*~

 

“The first rule of being nice,” Adrien says, “is to say nice things to people. And it helps if those things are true.”

“What if someone doesn’t have anything nice about them?” It’s not that she’s thinking about anyone in particular, except that she is definitely, one hundred percent thinking about Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

“Everyone has something nice about them. Everyone has something worth liking.”

He is so pretty, and so naive. “That is _not_ true.”

Adrien lifts his chin and points up at nothing as if he is some kind of university professor, and not a blond fourteen-year-old who didn’t even _have_ any other friends besides her until last year. “Even if you don’t like someone, you can find something good about them. Even if it’s just that you like their pants or their joke or their eyebrows.”

“You and I are literally the only people in class with good eyebrows.”

“That’s not the _point_!”

“Fine, fine.” She sighs. She’s creative. She can do this.

“You could practice on Sabrina,” Adrien suggests. “I mean, you’re friends with her, you must like some stuff about her.”

“I like that she does my homework.”

Adrien gives her that look where his mouth wrinkles at the edge. It’s not terribly attractive.

Chloé sighs again. “She’s a good listener. Red hair looks nice with green eyes. She isn’t stupid enough to wear warm colors with her complexion.”

Adrien grins, bubbly and bright. “See? That’s totally a start! You should tell her that!”

“Shouldn’t I just save it for when I need something from her?”

“No. Then she’ll know you don’t mean it.”

“Isn’t it about me saying it? Isn’t that what you said? Since when is her knowing that I mean it also necessary? You can’t control how people respond or what they think. If anything.”

“It’s about _both_.”

Ugh. “Fine. I’ll try.”

 

~*~

 

Sabrina, predictably, is over the freaking moon. As if she picked out her own genetics or something. Any time Chloé says something nice Sabrina basically loses her mind. But the weird thing is that when she doesn’t follow up the comment with a request, Sabrina goes quiet.

“You’re sure...you don’t want anything?”

Like, she wants plenty of things, but Adrien has repeatedly told her that asking for anything is against the rules of this exercise. “No. I just wanted to say it.”

“Chloé,” Sabrina says, “you’re the _best_.”

 _Best_ sounds different than it usually does - even from Sabrina, who says it constantly.

Chloé tries not to think about it too much.  

Normally she’s great at anything she tries, but she doesn’t have much success with this one.

 

~*~

 

The next day is Monday, so they’re back at school. And Adrien, who had been (she can admit it) helpful over the weekend, suddenly turns into an absolute nightmare.

“How do I look?” He asks, which is something he basically never asks.

“Fine.” She pauses. “Great. Um, maybe a little stressed, but your hair is really good and your skin is totally clear. Is this a test? Is this part of the lesson?”

“No? Oh! Yes. Yeah, totally. It’s part of the lesson, you did great, I think that _\- hi, Marinette!_ ”

It’s already super annoying that he’s friends with Marinette, but for some reason, today his voice is all fluttery - she can practically hear the hearts in his eyes, what’s _that_ about - and she is not sure she’s ever been so grossed out. It’s like Marinette’s stupid stupid crush is suddenly mutual.

Whatever. They can be awkwardly lovey-dovey googly-eyed at each other all they want, as long as she can get out of the vicinity. She does not care. Like, she kind of cares, Adrien is hers and should not be wasting his time, but she can’t control his choices so whatever. She does not care she does not care she does not _care_. She studiously turns her back on them and walks, with purpose, to Rose. Who she’s pretty sure is the least likely to respond badly if she tries this. Mostly because Rose is a pushover, but whatever. A girl has gotta work with the tools at hand.

She’s going to try this. She’s going to succeed. She’s Chloé freakin’ Bourgeois and she can do anything.

She coughs pointedly. Rose looks up and then kind of shrinks back. Geez, melodramatic much?

“I just wanted to say,” Chloé announces, “that most people who aren’t me who try to wear horizontal stripes look terrible, but you don’t look any worse in them than you would in anything else. Ditto pink.”

There is silence. There is absolute silence, she realizes. The entire classroom is staring at her. Rose says nothing, just sort of goggles at her.

It is so, so awkward.

She sticks her nose in the air. Who cares what they think. “That’s all,” she says to Rose, then flounces down to her seat next to Sabrina.

Adrien is still staring at Marinette, but Marinette is staring straight at her - blue eyes wide, mouth slightly open.

“What are you looking at?” Chloé snaps.

Marinette’s mouth closes but her eyes stay wide. There is no glare, no defensiveness, no wall. There is no snarky comment, no self-righteous tirade. Despite what she’d just said to Rose - Marinette, she realizes, looks _really_ good in pink.

She’s pretty sure she knew that before, and she’s pretty sure it annoyed her. It’s definitely pissing her off now, but the annoyance feels different in a way that makes her stomach drop. Like somehow, this whole thing with trying to be nice for Ladybug is gonna bite her in the ass in some way involving Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Which isn’t really surprising, Marinette ruins _everything_ , but it’s silly to think she could ruin this.

Right?

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by this art by hchano: http://hchano.tumblr.com/post/154277112516/when-u-catch-ur-idol-off-guard-and-the-selfie
> 
> Chloé has a long, LONG way to go - but I'm a sucker for a good redemption story, so I'm hoping Astruc has something fabulous in the works. In the meantime, I had a blast playing with Chloé's voice. (And it makes for a nice break from my slightly-less-chipper main story.)
> 
> I'm on tumblr @ dragonsinparis, hit me up


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